More than four months into the season, manager Mike Redmond has yet to find a consistently productive option to hit ahead of Giancarlo Stanton in the two hole.

Donovan Solano on Wednesday went 2 for 5 with two RBI. It was a rare productive game for a Marlins' two-hole hitter.

Midway through the season's fifth month, the Marlins have yet to find any continuity in that spot. The two-hole isn't the club's lone area of deficiency, but manager Mike Redmond on the recently completed nine-game road trip used four different hitters there: Solano, Ed Lucas, Adeiny Hechavarria and even Jake Marisnick.

Collectively, the 10 players Redmond has slotted in that spot through Wednesday were last in the National League in runs (50), doubles (11), RBI (23), slugging (.277), on-base plus slugging (.562) and homers (3). The respective league average in those categories: 67, 25, 45, .277, .708 and 11.

"It's probably result-oriented," Redmond said.

"We're looking for somebody to get on base there in front of [Giancarlo] Stanton. We've talked about Hech hitting there. Hech is a free swinger and really aggressive, which is OK in that two-hole, but we need to get guys on base in front of Stanton. That spot in the order we need a higher on-base guy."

Hechavarria in the No. 2 spot has a scant .136/.156/.227 slash line in 44 at-bats. The Marlins are 3-8 when he starts there.

For the better part of his career Placido Polanco has hit second with consistent success. That hasn't been the case this season. The Marlins are just 10-25 when Polanco bats second, in part because of his .210/.276/.217 slash line in 138 at-bats in that spot. His .494 OPS ranks 46th among 47 NL hitters with at least 50 two-hole plate appearances.

The Marlins (record in parenthesis) also have used Christian Yelich (4-3), Chris Valaika (1-2), Juan Pierre (1-0), Matt Diaz (0-2) and Chris Coghlan (1-4). Solano and Ed Lucas (22-18) have logged the most games in the second spot and have yielded the best results.

Lucas' .257 average is tied for eighth among 14 NL hitters with at least 150 plate appearances there. His .330 on-base percentage is fifth in that group. Overall in 167 at-bats hitting second, Lucas has a .653 OPS.

"[Lucas] has done a nice job wherever we put him in the lineup," Redmond said.

Solano has been even better. His .349 on-base percentage is tied for 11th-best among the 47 players with 50 or more plate appearances in that spot. Overall, he can boast a .339/.349/.435 slash line there. Yet the Marlins are just 4-10 when he bats second.

"Some of that [mixing and matching] in all honesty is trying to find somebody to get on base in front of [Stanton]," Redmond said.

"We've tried a lot of different guys at a lot of different positions. I feel if we're not winning ballgames why would you stand pat? If you're losing, just keep mixing it up until you find a combination that works."

Bat on the back burner

Surprisingly, Jose Fernandez enjoyed taking a break from hitting Tuesday, when he started at Kauffman Stadium and the designated hitter was in effect.

"I liked that," he said.

"It was one less thing I had to worry about, and I love hitting. Don't get me wrong, I love hitting. You start finding out it's not so fun when you have big league pitchers throwing. [Tuesday] I was focused on making my pitches and got in the dugout. It was pretty good. I liked it."

Added Redmond, who didn't have to worry about pinch-hitting for him: "He loves to hit, but at the same time, too, it has to be nice for those guys just to sit back and concentrate on pitching and not worry about where their spot is in the order. That's a whole different mental aspect of playing in the National League for pitchers. Late in the game, am I going to be in the game or are they going to pinch-hit for me."

Fernandez is 5 for 38 (.132), giving him the second-highest average among the club's current starters behind Henderson Alvarez, who is 5 for 14 (.357).